> The same thing happened with Libya and Syria, only now it was the other set of talking points - although again, Qaddafi was promoting pan-African unity, an alternative currency, independence from Europe and the USA on oil sales, closer ties to Russia and China, etc. Assad backed out of a Saudi-USA-Israeli pipeline deal in 2009 and went for the Russia-Iran pipeline instead (plus lots of electricity integration with Iran), so Obama signed off on the CIA overthrow/regime change directive.

Oh, bollocks. In what universe did the US go to war with Assad's regime? The US tepidly tried arming a few of the (non-fundamentalist) rebel groups once they appeared, but nothing more than that. (Presumably you think the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt were caused by the CIA, too, for some unfathomable reason.) And how, exactly, has the US profited monetarily from what happened in Libya and Syria?

(Gaddafi was actually getting closer to the US and Europe; in 2004 he gave up his nuclear weapons program in return for better relations with the West. As for "pan-African unity" -- sure, from the guy who invaded Chad to steal land from it. No one took his bombast seriously.)